The Long and Winding Road
by bbiteshard
Summary: After losing her twin, Katherine Gilbert has been on a downward spiral. Enter Professor Elijah Mikaelson with his perfect accent, perfect hair and perfect Tom Ford suit. The two embark on a journey of pain, lust, forgiveness, and most importantly, love.


**The Long and Winding Road**

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Author's Note: Hello! Thank you for reading my story!  
I wanted to give a HUGE thank you to my Betas: Leah, Kaitlin, Spence, and Beckiie for correcting my punctuation and just being all around flawless.

Disclaimer: I unfortunately don't own anything TVD related.

#Britt

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How had she gotten here? How had she gotten in this seat? How had she not heard a word Caroline was saying? Her mind was completely blank. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Elena was supposed to be here with her, walking with her to this class. Sitting beside her in the bottom row seats, talking to her about the upcoming semester.

"Earth to Kat." voiced an impatient Caroline beside her.

"Kat!" Caroline said more harshly. Katherine snapped her head up to look at the glaring blonde beside her.

"Have you heard a word I've said? Do you think its okay for me to go out on a date with Tyler? I know he's a sophomore, but he's so freaking hot."

"If dumb, steroid pumping jocks is your thing, go for it." Katherine said, looking down at her phone. She hadn't changed the display picture - it was still a picture of her and Elena. Elena was smiling while Katherine was doing her usual unamused look. She missed that. She missed her.

"Wow. Rude much? That's not even fair considering you've been messing around with his hot uncle who also happens to be on the football team." Caroline said clearly upset by Katherine's behavior.

"I know. Sorry. I'm just ready to leave."

"We've been here for twenty minutes Kat. Class hasn't even started yet."

"Well our professor is ten minutes late and I have more important things to be doing." Katherine retorted.

"Like who? Mason?"

"Well he's a good start." Katherine said with a fake smile.

She had been doing that a lot lately, putting on fake smiles. It was like no one could tell the difference. Her face forced out "normal" emotions but on the inside she felt hollow.

Katherine stood up from her seat, "I'll see you later Caroline. He's late and I'm not going to sit here for another ten minutes."

"Don't just go, wait five minutes. No one else is leaving." Caroline whispered angrily. Katherine looked behind her and sure enough, no one was getting up to leave.

"I don't care. I'll see you back at the apartment."

Katherine reached down and grabbed her large purse from beside Caroline's feet. She swiftly turned around to exit the classroom when she ran into a firm chest.

"Going somewhere?" The voice asked her. Her head slowly rose to meet the softest brown eyes she had ever seen.

"Um what?" Katherine replied somewhat unintelligently.

The man took a step back from her. Katherine's eyes immediately scanned over him. She noticed his precisely polished shoes, his Tom Ford black suit, and his silver cuff links that were peeking out from his sleeve. He was lean and somewhat tall. His brown hair was gelled perfectly into place.

"I asked if you were going somewhere." His voice was strong, impolite and she could've sworn she heard a slight accent.

Katherine finally focused and realized where she was. She turned her head to look around the room, all eyes were on her. She looked over at Caroline who had her head bowed down in embarrassment.

"I was just about to leave, I'm really not one to be kept waiting." Katherine's voice was firm. She pushed back her shoulders and stood up straight.

"My apologies Miss…?"

"Gilbert."

"Gilbert. Well Miss Gilbert, it won't happen again. So if you would take your seat, we can begin." The man said dismissively.

Katherine was appalled. No one had ever dismissed her so quickly. She glared at him for a few moments before turning around and sitting back in her seat. She gently sat her purse back on the ground and crossed her legs. Her eyebrows raised to inform him that she was ready to begin.

The man walked behind the large brown desk that sat in the middle of the lecture hall. His perfect black suit clashed against the streaked and stained whiteboard behind him.

"As I was telling Miss Gilbert, I'm sorry for my tardiness. I am Elijah Mikaelson and I will be teaching Business Ethics. This course will not be easy. I am expecting a lot out of each and every one of you. I'm going to pass out the Syllabus, you'll do well to memorize it as I follow it thoroughly. I am warning you that I'm overly fond of pop quizzes so you'll need to pay attention and do the readings. Any questions?"

Katherine looked around only to realize no one was going to raise their hand. He moved from the desk with the printed stack of sheets in his hand. She watched as he moved fluidly up the stairs to hand out the syllabus to each row. When he got to her row she reached her hand out to take the stack of papers, but instead he dropped them down on her lap and moved back toward the desk. Katherine gave out a huff of annoyance. She took the piece of paper and passed the stack on. Caroline turned her head and looked at her.

"What is your problem?" Caroline asked, in what Katherine recognized as her most annoyed voice.

"Stop asking me that! Nothing. I'm peachy."

Caroline looked at Katherine in sympathy. Katherine shook her head and scrunched up her face in anger.

"Leave it, Caroline." Katherine said angrily. Caroline nodded her head and looked back toward the professor.

Mr. Mikaelson continued on with his lecture about what he expected out of the class, the attendance policy (which was complete bullshit), and the exams during the semester.

Finally Mr. Mikaelson gave the class permission to go.

Caroline and Katherine stood up and gathered their things. They were both headed to the door when Katherine heard her name being called.

"Miss Gilbert!"

Katherine turned around to see Mr. Mikaelson beckoning her over to his desk. She simply raised an eyebrow at him and turned right back around and strolled out of the classroom. Caroline came trailing behind her with a confused look on her face.

"What was that?" Caroline said from behind Katherine, struggling to hold her notebook and balance her purse.

"What was what?" She knew what Caroline was talking about but she knew better than to get into it with the blonde.

"The whole just walking away from our professor when he's calling your name..."

"I didn't hear him."

"You looked straight at him."

"I was looking at the clock."

"That clock doesn't work and you have a watch on." Caroline said triumphantly.

"Care…" Katherine said exasperatedly. They continued to move out of the building and outside.

"You like him!" Caroline yelled beside her. Katherine spared her a glance, before increasing her pace.

"I don't like him. He was rude and he kept the whole class waiting for him. And what was up with the two thousand dollar suit? He teaches at a state college."

Caroline moved to catch up with her. Katherine was grateful that Caroline didn't carry on about what had happened. She instead chose to walk quietly next to her. Katherine wasn't even sure she knew what happened. Whatever it was, she knew that it had the potential to be bad. She didn't need anymore bad. Her life was messed up enough.

The pair finally reached their apartment. They walked in and headed toward their respective rooms. Katherine remembered Caroline had cheer practice soon and some committee meeting after that. She put her stuff down on her bed and walked to the bathroom. Her chest tightened as she stood in front of the mirror. The hate that she felt from being in this bathroom and the memories that came with it... Even worse, looking in the mirror. She could pretend that her reflection was her twin. She could try to smile as Elena had and imagine that Elena was right in front of her. She didn't want to see her own lifeless eyes staring back at her.

With a shake of her head, Katherine reached into the medicine cabinet and skillfully untwisted the cap of the prescription bottle and poured three light blue pills with a 'K' cut in the middle into her hand. She threw them into her mouth and turned on the faucet. Gathering some water in her palms, she swallowed thickly, washing down the pills. Katherine turned off the faucet, frowning into the mirror one last time before turning to go back into her room. She looked down at her watch, it was a little after twelve. She had two hours before her next class began. Katherine climbed into her bed and stared at the ceiling and eventually, she fell into a fitful sleep.


End file.
